The Weekly's big undersized Summer in the City issue is out, and in it they're offering up a few suggestions of stuff to do on the cheap (under $15), including heading over to the Paramount in Oakland for their Friday classic movie series (next up, Creature from the Black Lagoon on July 10th), or going to the Academy of Sciences for their $10 nightlife events. But we were especially glad to be reminded of Audium, the "sound-space continuum" designed by electronic music composer Stan Shaff. It's a deeply 70s space tucked away in an assuming building at 1616 Bush, featuring 169 speakers and a bunch of chairs arranged in a circle. Audience members are immersed, with the lights off, in a sound sculpture in which a custom-composed piece of music seems to move around the room as it is played. The place was funded by an NEA grant in the early 70s, and is still presided over every Friday and Saturday by Shaff himself, who is 79 years old and just premiered a new composition this past October, "Audium 9."
Check it out -- it makes for a unique second or third date, and a nice refuge from a chilly San Francisco summer night.